


Not every day. Not today.

by gwmclintock88



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F, season 2 finale spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 05:42:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4654518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwmclintock88/pseuds/gwmclintock88
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i> When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it'll never end, but however hard you try you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor, but I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever, for one moment, accepts it.</i> - Doctor Who, "Forest of the Dead."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not every day. Not today.

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the season finale for Season 2.

             Everybody knows everybody dies.

            It was one of those facts that the nuns preached. You die, you go to heaven or hell. It was a simple and universal truth. Over and over again, people are taught it, they learn it, live it, see it, and feel it. This is life. And it ends.

            Usually.

            Usually life ends, because let’s face it, this is the age of miracles and they literally are surrounded by gods and monsters invading Earth. So the people dying? Not as much as you might think.

            Coulson came back. She came back.

            Jemma had to come back.

            This thought consumed her, and even though she stopped going down to that room, stopped visiting Jemma’s stone prison, and even told everyone that she accepted that Jemma was most likely dead, there still was some small part of her that couldn’t give up her ghost. Not when there was still a chance that Jemma could come back, even if it was just a small one.

            “Sk-Daisy?” She turned to see Mack standing in the doorway.

            Daisy commandeered the holo-table on the Bus, using it to try and track the multiple incidents that may indicate either a potential inhuman or some other person to be added to the list. Not that she as a fan of lists, because eventually, all lists end with death. It didn’t start with the Nazis but that was her frame of reference for all of this list making.

            “We get a hit?” She didn’t even look up from the data packages she managed on the table. Even without the two semesters of training at the Academy, she more than surpassed any requirements – she even managed to update the entire system to making it easier to navigate.

            “No,” Mack said, stepping further into the room. “It’s the base.”

            Daisy stopped, her hand holding a piece of data and desperately trying not to crush it in her palm. Not that it would matter since she could just open the data back up, but still, that was hours of work she might lose.

            Coulson usually left them alone, letting her work with Mac and a few others to recruit new members for the Caterpillar teams. With some luck, and a lot of skill between the two of them, they managed to collect four people, and convinced another half dozen that it would be best to either stop, or at least learn to control their abilities. Those people were monitored, even though both Mac and she felt a little uncomfortable at the surveillance. It was a necessary evil, but it still brought back thoughts of Nazis.

            Goodwin’s law and all that.

            But for him to contact them, it must be something important. He’d only done it once before, when there was some trouble brewing with a newly awaked Inhuman. Coulson said it was too much like Bahran for him to try and send May in, so their Caterpillar team took the lead. They resolved the situation before it became catastrophic, but no one at SHIELD was happy with the outcome. How can you be in you have to take the life of a child?

            Everybody knows everybody dies. Daisy watched her father kill her mother. He didn’t do it out of malice or anger, but out of love. Cal saved her, and it wasn’t the ‘best day ever’ – not by a long shot – but he saved her. Which was more than most men ever did for her.

            Her mother was dead though, and nothing could bring her back. Just like nothing could bring back the child who made nightmares come alive.  Nothing could bring back Jemma – if she was dead.

            Mack took a step closer to her, not so that he was completely in her space, but close enough. “Turbo thinks he figured it out.”

            Daisy saved and closed the project she was working on before she did something she regretted. She gripped the table, trying to rein in the feelings that started to overwhelm her. She felt the shaking coming, a sensation she thought she had finally gotten under control.

            “I’ll ordered them to turn us around. By the time we get back…”

            “She may be out of there?” Daisy shook her head. “No, we’re not going to waste time on this again.” She spat the words out, knowing she couldn’t get them out any other way. “We’ve lost how many leads because Fitz has a hunch? Or a new idea? We’ve run back how many times on the off chance that he figured out the impossible. We’ve got a job to do, and we’ll worry about everything else later.”

            Mac stared at her, before nodding. She glanced up to see approval in his eyes. They never got along, what with the whole Daisy-having-alien-blood-thing, but their tentative working relationship seemed to have progressed to a tentative friendship. She felt a little of the burden of her choice ease.

            “We’ve only a few hours out from Chicago,” Daisy said, opening up the mission parameters. “Tell the team to begin prep, and then you and I can talk logistics.”

            “Will do,” Mack said. He moved through the room, patting her on the shoulder as he went. “Quake.”

            Daisy stared at him as he left. Mack was the type of guy to give nicknames to his friends. Not that he gave his friendship away easily, but the names were just a part of how he connected with them. Up until now, he struggled to call her ‘Daisy’ (technically, everyone did but she interacted with Mac the most outside of Coulson). The nickname could make it easier for him, plus, well, it made her feel a part of something.

            Even with recruiting four other Inhumans, Daisy still felt isolated from everything. It started a few months back when she first got this mission, when she first learned Jemma disappeared, and when she first had to make the choice to focus on the task at hand, rather than some pipe dream.

            Jemma was gone, and she would remain that way until she wasn’t.

            “We’ve got a job to do,” Daisy whispered to an empty room. “I’m sorry.”

            Words worked off vibrations. They’d carry along the way until something disrupted their movement or they simply lost speed. Still, with a few months of training under her belt, Daisy felt confident in how she now saw the world, how she lived in it and interacted with everything. She wasn’t afraid to touch things in fear of destroying them anymore, and she could feel the faintest of vibrations from distances when they long should have been gone.

            Words had power, and Jemma may never know how much she gave up to not be there for her. She thought of Jemma most nights when she could sleep. Laying there, whispering words and prayers to the dark (she didn’t believe in much anymore, but she hoped Jemma heard them), Daisy gave herself a few moments to mourn what she could have had if she took a chance.

            Everybody dies. But the thought of just accepting that, of letting people go before Daisy gave it her everything, before she could tell them how much they meant to her was unacceptable. She remembered watching an episode of Doctor Who with Jemma and Fitz, where the Doctor was racing through some library and a voice-over was speaking about him never giving up, not accepting that everyone dies even though he knew they did.

            But there are days, some days where Daisy could spend them with her friends, or days when she saved the life or lives of a children, family members, or strangers. Days when she stepped up into the line of fire knowing full well what was rushing toward her. Days where she got to go home and everything was alright.

            Today felt like one of those days.

            Jemma would come back, and Daisy would beg her forgiveness for being away. She would tell her how much she meant to her. And even if Jemma never returned those feelings, and even if she loved Fitz in a way she never could love her, Daisy would be okay.

            Because for once, someone she loved didn’t leave. Just once, someone lived.

            Everyone knows everyone dies.

            But not every day. Not today.

**Author's Note:**

> The title and most of the story stems from a Doctor Who episodes: "Forest of the Dead." This is probably my second favorite pairings of episodes - not because of necessarily the story but because of the message. It is a message shared with "The Doctor Dances." And that message is simple: "Just this once, everybody lives."
> 
> Its something that I think Daisy would struggle with, and I tried to convey that here. I hope I did a good job and you enjoyed this little swing before things start getting bumpy with Season 3.
> 
> I own nothing except the plot. 
> 
> Good night and good luck.


End file.
